I'm back! I'm sorry that it took me such a long time to update, but, this chapter is diffrent!
This time, I'm uploading a chapter from the Czech Republic. Indeed, im on a vacation/holiday (depends on where you live). I wanted to upload this chapter sooner, but the internet got in the way. The house my family has rented is awesome, but the internet is less stable than a cow on roller skates. Oh well, it's here (at last).
Review replies:
Destiny: "I loved this chapter, especially the part where Nefarious woke up from a nightmare. That was hilarious. I can't wait for the next chapter. Keep up the great work. : )"
Glad to hear you liked that part. I'll be honest with you: that part wasn't even supposed to exist. It's just that when I was writing that part I thought: "Yeah, why can't the villains have a nightmare for once?", so I put in Nefarious. The "Damn groovitrons!" is actually a line from A Crack in Time. Try using the groovitron on Nefarious during the final boss fight, and he might say it (or something like that. I have the Dutch version, you see. In my copy of the game he says "Vervloekte groovitrons!" which translates to "Cursed groovitrons!", so I'm not entirely sure what he says in the English version)
Another reason to spam the groovitron: the dances are hilarious. Alister will do the moonwalk and if I remember correctly Nefarious' dance is a reference to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'.
zenith88: "Oh silly me, how could i forget to write a review to the previous chapter? They are both great and nice to read plus Ratchet and Angela fluff yay. I'm just a bit courious about how long the nightmares will last.
Next guess: Super Mario ;)"
Welcome back! About Ratchet and Angela fluff, this chapter is full of it. And those nightmares, well, this chapter will (hopefully) answer some of your questions. (And Super Mario, I'll write it down.)
vengarl22: "Hahahah the part with nefarious was hilarious and well I have no more ideas so until the next I'll have to think - cheers"
Well, if you have any more ideas, give me a shout. For now, please enjoy the next chapter.
MissKittyBear: "Very good chapter! I loved it! Also, Dr. Nefarious was awesome! (WAAAH! Damn groovitrons! xD) Also, you play Sly Cooper too? Rioichi Cooper was awesome! :3"
Sly Cooper? I haven't played it yet, but I will one day! I've also seen the Sly Cooper movie trailer, it was hilarious!
Alright, it's finally time! Please enjoy the next chapter!
Clank's eyes slowly opened. He was done scanning his drivers, motherboard, and sisterboards. No damage had been found. The tiny robot shook his head and exited his room.
He walked into the ship's kitchen, where he saw Ratchet eating a sandwich in silence. Angela was not with him. "Good morning, Ratchet.", Clank greeted his friend.
"Good morning, pal. No damage found?"
"No. My hardware is in perfect condition. As for the software, I found a few old software that could use an update, and a few files were not where they should be, but that all has been taken care of already."
Clank looked around the room again. "Is miss Cross not with you?"
"Nope, she's still asleep. I figured that she could use an extra few hours of sleep."
Hypernova came in. He yawned. "Good morning, fellas. Everything alright here?"
"Yep.", Ratchet answered.
Clank hummed in thought. "If I may ask, why did you just yawn? I know that it was your decision to stay awake, but if you are yawning, wouldn't it be wise to sleep for a few hours?"
Hypernova laughed. "I appreciate your concern, Clank, but I'm okay. I sleep too, but when I do, this suit goes on auto-pilot. See, I've downloaded my personality into this thing: if anything happens to me, this suit is capable of living on on it's own."
Hypernova looked around the room. "Where's Angela?"
"Still asleep.", Ratchet answered while taking another bite of his sandwich.
"Odd. Last night, late, I met her in the hallways. She said she couldn't sleep, so I gave her a sleeping pill. She should've been awake by now."
"Hmm... Maybe she's still asleep because of what happened around 2 A.M. this morning? She had another nightmare."
"Another nightmare? Ratchet, what are you talking about? Is Angela having nightmares?"
"Yep. Almost every night."
"Ratchet,", Hypernova said with a worried tone, "Why didn't you tell me this?"
"Because I didn't see why I should."
"Ratchet, one nightmare is normal, two nightmares is unusual, three nightmares is almost impossible, four nightmares means that something's wrong. I believe you said 'Almost every night'?"
Ratchet nodded.
"In that case, I think something's really wrong. I'll do some research. In the meantime, keep an eye on her. Understand?"
Ratchet nodded again.
Angela came walking into the kitchen with a loud yawn. "Morning, Ratchet. Clank."
"Good morning, miss Cross. Did you sleep well?", Clank replied.
Angela eyed Ratchet. "Yes, I did."
"Thanks to someone.", She thought, looking at Ratchet who was making a cup of tea. "Ratchet?"
"Yes?"
"Could you make a cup of tea for me as well?"
Ratchet smiled. "Sure!"
Ratchet immediatly got to work. Angela, in the meantime, sat down and yawned again. "You alright?", Ratchet asked.
"I'm fine, why do you ask?"
"Well, with the amount of nightmares you're having, I'm getting worried."
"Well, I feel alright, though I'm getting sick of those nightmares. It's been a while since I had some good sleep."
"Well, better luck next night, eh?"
Ratchet woke up. Not because it was time for him to wake up, but because Angela was shivering. Ratchet immediatly wrapped his arms around her in a protective way, and after a while, she calmed. She slowly opened her eyes.
"Guess what?", Angela groaned.
"Nightmares?"
"Yep."
She sighed. "I swear that if this doesn't stop, I'll shoot myself."
"Hey, don't think like that. Of course the nightmares will stop."
"I hope", Ratchet added in his thoughts.
"But what if this never ends? And where do they come from anyway?"
Ratchet sighed. "Yesterday morning, Hypernova asked where you were, since you were neither with me nor Clank, so he was worried for your safety. When I told him that you had another nightmare, he kinda freaked out. According to him, you shouldn't have all these nightmares. He's doing some research as we speak."
"I'm not sure if I should be glad that someone is trying to find some answers for me, or if I should be mad that someone is using me as some sort of test subject. Either way, I honestly don't care right now."
"Ratchet looked at the stars outside, still holding Angela. He noticed that the stars weren't a white blur anymore, which meant the ship was slowing down.
"I'll ask what is going on later.", He thought as he watched the stars flying past their window.
"Angela, look."
Ratchet pointed at the window. Angela opened her eyes and, like Ratchet told her to do, looked at the stars.
She didn't know how or why, but it was like the stars were singing her a lullaby (hey, that rhymes!). Her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier until, at last, her eyes closed. Apparantly the stars had the same effect on Ratchet, for she could hear him snore silently.
And then it hit her.
"Every time I have a nightmare Ratchet comforts me and wraps his arms around me, and after that, nothing. Perhaps his presence blocks the nightmares? Might be worth testing."
Angela rolled around and let her head rest under Ratchet's chin, and after one last breath, she fell into a deep sleep.
A few rays of light coming from the morning sun woke Angela up. She yawned, and looked out the window. To her surrprise, they were landed on a planet. The sky was a mix of pink and purple, and the forests were blue. Green water flowed through this bizarre landscape.
"Ratchet?"
"Hmm?"
"Am I going crazy, or are we landed on a planet that is nothing like planets as we know them? Nothing like Veldin, Fastoon, Kerwan, or Grelbin?"
Ratchet rolled around and saw what she meant. "Whoa, what is this place?!"
They quickly got out of bed and changed their clothes. They then walked to the bridge, and to their surprise, it was empty: No Hypernova, no Clank.
As if on cue, they could hear some sort of hissing behind them. They turned around.
Nothing.
"Alright, this is getting creepy.", Ratchet whispered as they walked down the hallway. Angela nodded.
"What is getting creepy?"
Both Lombaxes yelled "Whaaa!", and jumped two meters into the air.
"You sneaky bastard!", They yelled in unison at Hypernova when they landed.
"Sneaky? What do you mean?"
Everyone stayed silent for a moment.
"Ah, I think I know what is going on here. You see, we flew through an asteroid a few hours ago. That isn't a problem if it wasn't for the fact that the shields were offline due to poor maintenance. I guess one of my engineers forgot to check it. Anyway, that asteroid contained a small colony of tetramites. To kill all of them and repair the damage, Clank and I landed the ship on a nearby planet. You see, this planet's green oceans contain a strange mineral named Xonathan, which is lethal to most life forms, including tetramites. In fact, no known lifeform can inhale, digest, or even touch Xonathan without dieing immediatly or a few minutes later.
We simply used some of the nearby water to get rid of the tetramites, and since we were on the surface of a planet, repairing the damage was easy. Clank is currently outside, some of the strange minerals were not in his database, so he is taking a few samples. As for the ship, parts of the main computer were damaged, so the computer is rebooting. We will stay on the ground until tomorrow morning, just to make sure that the computer has completed it's scans.", Hypernova explained.
"So that hissing was the airlock!", Angela realized.
"Indeed. Well, if you all don't mind, I'm going to scan the ship to make sure no tetramite is still alive."
Ratchet laid his towel on a chair, and dove into the water. He resurfaced a few seconds later. "The water's great, Angela!"
Ratchet was wearing the same harness as in his first adventure, though instead of green pants he was wearing black pants that ended just over his knees, with orange stripes running down the legs. And he was wearing his trademark leather gloves, of course.
"Is it?", Angela asked. She was already wearing her black-green wetsuit, though she was currently reading a book.
"Yes, it is! Why do you ask? Don't you trust me?", Ratchet replied with an offended voice. No, of course he wasn't really offended, he was just teasing Angela a bit.
"No, no, I trust you."
"Ah, I get it. You're still afraid, aren't you?"
"Of course not!"
"Angela is a co-ward!", Ratchet yelled.
Angela smiled evilly. "A coward, huh?"
She suddenly closed her book, put it down, and ran straight at Ratchet. Ratchet quickly swam away, but Angela dove after him. She grabbed his tail, forcing him to turn around, and as soon as they made eye contact his face was introduced to a splash of water.
You understand, this meant war.
Both Lombaxes sent wave after wave of water at the other, and within ten minutes, they were completely soaked. They swam to the edge of the pool, pulled themselves up, and sat down, their feet still in the warm water.
"Hahaha! That was fun!"
Ratchet yawned. "Yes it was, wasn't it?"
"Are you guys tired already?", Hypernova's voice came from the other side of the room.
Both Lombaxes' heads turned to where the sound came from, just in time to witness Hypernova taking off his helmet.
Both Lombaxes' eyes went wide. "You're a... You're a..."
Chocolate-coffee colored fur, three cream-colored stripes on his trademark Lombax ears, and friendly, brown eyes greeted them.
"A Lombax?!", Ratchet and Angela cried out in unison.
Hypernova is a Lombax? Now that's a gamechanger!
You understand, Hypernova has some explaining to do. Trust me, next chapter it will all make sense.
However, it'll probably take a while for the next chapter to arrive. Like I said, I'm on a trip to the Czech Republic, so I only write ten minutes per day instead of the usual forty, not to mention that I am working on many other projects as well, such as a few mods for the game Kerbal Space Program, a bunch of videos for Youtube, a 3D model of a red desert planet for DeviantArt, and many other projects.
Until then, please leave a review if it isn't too much trouble.
And, to everyone: take care.
- The White Guardian